Tst #3 USA

EMMA DONALDSON

Tst #3 USA (test number three: USA) is a written account of a train journey across the US that begins in a departure lounge at Gatwick airport and ends a month later on a Seattle City bus. In between are stops at Philadelphia, Washington DC, Denver, Salt Lake City, Portland and Seattle. The text is presented on paper and on the wall and is accompanied by a projected sequence of images taken on the journey.

The text (which does not use the first person), tries through ordinary language to probe the detail memory has stored for the time of experience in the city. The aim of Tst #3 USA is to identify why six 'city linked American episodes' retained in memory still continue to impose themselves upon the present. The text seeks to ask if these past episodes now held in the imaginary in any way frame or shape our encounter with the present.

Emma Donaldson, born in Belfast, studied Fine Art Painting at Wimbledon School of Art, and at The Royal College of Art. She went on to study Histories and Theories of architecture at the Architectural Association in London. In the recent past, Emma curated Part 1 of Derry?London?London?Derry?, Context Galleries Derry and presented new abstract watercolours at Market Place Theatre, Armagh. Tst #3 USA will be exhibited as part of Pallas Contemporary Projects Open Summer Programme in Dublin, 2010.